Business

Digital Advertising - A Publisher’s Predicament

By Papia Sen

August 08, 2018 at 3:22 PM

Publishers have tried to make money through online ads since the inception of digital format in the early nineties. With the emerging technology, publishers hoped to recreate their success which was earlier found in print and broadcast advertising during the sixties and seventies.

Rather, the opposite happened.

Instead of using this technology as an inspiration, publishers simply sold digital ads which were mostly low quality and misplaced ads, thus facing inevitable challenges, unsure of the ad’s return on investment.

A stronger concept yet skeptical

But there exist many challenges around digital advertising and if not dealt with now, you will have to fight an uphill battle, barely making any progress.

Let us look at some of the critical hurdles and ideas to overcome them.

Growing use of ad blockers

The usage of ad blockers grew by 30%, with roughly 11% internet users relying on the technology.

Overcoming the hurdle - Anti-ad blocking technology startups have started to provide solutions. Some publishers have begun blocking visitors to their website if they have their ad blockers turned on. Other publishers charge users with ad blockers to access the website or request to disable their ad blockers.

Low user experience and quality ads

Many cases, high quality ads are misplaced in websites that don’t match the site’s content or requirements. Then there are cases where ads do not meet the quality standards.

Overcoming the hurdle - While the quality of the ad has to be maintained, the functioning of the website should not be affected. Intrusive ads like prestitial ads and flash animated ads must not be pushed as it hampers reader's engagement. Also, the language mismatch of the ads and the website content must be taken care of before the ad goes live.

Falling revenue

Advertising has become the ‘tax’ on our digital entertainment. The interruptions increased gradually and thus the ‘free media with advertising’ campaign started.

Overcoming the hurdle - The next phase for the ad industry should begin with an understanding of what creates value for readers. Asking audiences for feedback and understanding user behaviors who block ads should become part of every publishers’ best practice. Work on creating faster, less intrusive and more relevant ads. Avoid ad cluttering and understand the technology behind.

Lack of technological capabilities

Many small and midsize publishers have trouble keeping up with modern technological aspects like video ad formats.

Overcoming the hurdle - Readers prefer larger video player units and video ads, to which many publishers don’t have the technological support. There are many ad formats, complex technical issues and codes for publishers to manage and support on their own. Collaboration with experts and self learning is the best possible plan.

Adapt and evolve, publishers

Keith Weed, Unilever’s CMO, says at Advertising Week Europe in London on March 2017,

“There is a huge fragmentation and clutter out there in advertising absolutely, and so people have more choice and I totally agree [that] this idea of the attention economy, of course people have choice, they can switch around more, and hence if we don't show great advertising, people switch around more”.

Overcome obstacles, do not adopt someone else’s strategy. Create something new. Let your ad reach the target readers’ and their hearts. Keep yourself updated with the modern methodologies so that you don't get puzzled and cautious about online advertising.

We help boost your ad and revenue

Quintype, a new age CMS is built to help you through the process of digital advertising. We let you place ads on strategic revenue generation model across various platforms. We also cater to advertising creatives’ placement to attract reader’s interaction with the website, thus helping you increase your revenue.